Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c8.s1.5

c8.s1.5

In view of this character for rich treatment it is strange to find that the earliest known phase of the building art in India, recently excavated, discloses a style of structure which has been described as aesthetically barren as would be the remains "of some present day working town in Lancashire." This development in the dawn-age of the country has been designated the "Indus Civilization," as the records of its culture have been found buried in the soil of the regions bordering on the river Indus. A comparison of these remains with those of other countries of which the chronology is known, as for instance Mesopotamia has indicated that the Indus Civilization was in a fairly matured state as early as 3000 B.C., so that its origin may go back to a still more remote age. Two separate sites have so far been excavated, but there are mounds and other evidences which imply that it extended over a considerable portion of north-west India and even beyond, thus embracing "an area immensely larger than either Egypt or Sumer." Whether it was distributed over the remainder of the sub-continent remains to be seen, but there is an opinion "that this culture spread to, even if settlements were not actually made in, the Ganges valley."³